
Qass. 
Book. 








erie 



Dctttf) of JJrc8iheat Ciiicofn. 



M. 5©. (Sixmtx. 






THE TsTATIOlST'S LOSS 



A DISCOURSE 



THE LIFE, SERVICES, Aj^D DEATH 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



L^TE DPIiESIDENT OE THE XJDSTITED STATES. 



HIRAM P. CROZIER 



Delivered at Huntington, L. J,, Aj^ril 19th, 1S65. 



SECOND ED.;TI0N 



JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTERS, 16 & 18 JACOB STREET. 

1800. 



THE NATION'S LOSS. 



My Friends : Less thau one slioii: week ago we 
were gatliered in tins liall, to rejoice and congratulate 
one another for the signal victory of onr national arms, 
boding the brighter victory of peace. Even while we 
were then speaking and pleading for forgiveness to- 
ward the South whenever she shall lay down her arms, 
the assassin was doing his work of death. The chief 
head of a great nation has been laid low. An insig- 
nificant man, inspired by the passions of a flying fiend, 
shoots the President of thirty millions of people, when 
this people, seemingly, most need his great wisdom, 
justness, mercifulness, goodness of heart, to direct them 
through the perils that beset the state. We were all 
looking at the rainbow of a near peace, and behold ! 
the dagger of the assassin. A mine is sprung beneath 
us, the earth upheaves, swallows up our leader, and 
threatens to engulf, with him, the first statesman of 
the age ; and henceforth we tremble at the possibil- 
ities around us. We know no limit to evil plots and 
traps after the gigantic evil consummation of the last 



4 THE NATION S LOSS. 

week. Patient investigation has sliown tliat tlie plot, 
if not wide-spread, was deep-laid, and uAvful beyond 
parallel in its infoniy. It contemplated the assassin- 
ation of every chief head of the National Government, 
hoping thereby to bewikler and stun the intellect and 
heart of the great American people — to palsy its great 
arm lifted in ^\-ar, and during the syncope of the na- 
tion, the jiaralysis of its Avar-power, to revive the stag- 
gering fortunes of the rebellion, and compel a f\ilse 
peace by recognition and se2:)aration. Tlie ])lot so 
awful has signally failed, although in part so mourn- 
fully successful. The saviour of the country has fallen 
that the avenger may arise ! Tlie ])eople, already be- 
lieving that they had seen the bottom of the rebellion, 
are suddenly called upon to look lower down into the 
frightful cup of liorrors given them in the murder of 
their President and the attempted murder of their Sec- 
retary of State ; and as the first shot of the rel)ellion 
against Sumter aroused the North nnd fused the 
North, so this last stroke of rebellion, tliroiiLih the 
bloody Land of ilie assassin, will sleel e\-ery lu-art, 
n('i'\-e eveiy arm, l>race every \\\\\. <|iiickcii Into life 
every t)un('e o\' Mond, and make arliculatc (lie demand 
tlial (liis icbcjlidii, \\i{\\ slavery, i(s lirst eausi', ils con- 
tinued ins])ii'al ii»n, and it-^ last llentli--li instigator, shall 
ut telly and lnre\-ei' peii^h, and that the |>iiiiei])al and 
conspicuous leaders in llii^ ei'inie *>\' all crimes in his- 



THE NATION S LOSS. 



tory shall liave condign punishment. Wl^en before 
was a man in public life assassinated for his goodness, 
his impartial sense of right, and truth, and justice, his 
love of clemency ? William of Orange, " the father of 
his country," fell by the hand of the assassin, Baltha- 
zar Gerard, in 1584, while the little States of Holland 
were in the midst of their a-vesxt struf>:2:le with the (A- 
gantic power of Spain. But that was almost three 
hundred years ago. That was the middle and last of 
the sixteenth century. That was in the days of the 
Inquisition, the days of intolerance, the days of in- 
trigue, when court-lying, bribery, and assassination 
were the rule, not the exception. When we look into 
the history of the Roman Empire, that great cauldron 
of social forces, boiling with feculent scum, we are not 
surprised that civil war should break out between 
Ca3sar and Pompey ; that Pomj)ey should be assassin- 
ated ; that Ctesar should fall by the hand of Brutus 
and Cassius ; that men, palsied w^ith fear, should 
league together, form triumvirates, and, calling their 
league the government, brand all theii' opposers as 
public enemies, and mark them for execution. So 
Cicero and many of the best citizens of Kome fell vic- 
tims to Octavius, Anthony, and Lepidus. We do not 
wonder that monsters like Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, 
drunk with crime ^^^^d blood, should be born amid 
these pestilent social vapors. We see that the times 



b THE NATIONS LOSS. 

fitted the. men, and tlie men the times. The cruci- 
fixion of Christ, coming into a province of Rome, 
ceases to astonish ns. The imprisonment of some 
of his apostles, the beheading of John and Paul, 
the ten ^persecutions, were all natural growths upon 
the poisoned soil of a false religion, a false state, / 
bound to shut out the new and maintain the old. 
That the new and true should come and conquer the 
old and the false, with such ti'emendous odds to over, 
come, is proof of the amazing forces of the higher 
faculties of human nature, and of the immortal spir- 
itual powers with which they are leagued, and from 
which a deathless inspiration comes to irj^lift and save 
mankind. The whole history and character of this 
war, beginning in bloody revolt against benignant and, 
republican autliority, and growing into the barbarism 
of making relics and charms out of the bones of loyal 
soldiers, starving to death loyal prisoners, massacring 
colored soldiers, and culminating in tlie assassination 
of President Lincohi, while aiming to strike down 
every liead and ])aralyze every ai'in of I lie (un'ern- 
ment, sho\vs us, wlint every ])ag(' of past liistory I'e- 
peats, that evil, lal^iiy, crinic, ojipi'cssion, entlironed 
A\ roiiLj,' ol' aii\' Jvind, iKmc ol' tlicsc demons vwv ai'c cdU 
out of a people witlit'Ut tearing and rending them. 
No great ti'utli lliiows its disinfecting light into the 
depdis of ;i ii;ilioir< dnikiiess and 1 mi'l laiisni, A\itliout 



THE NATION S LOSS. i 

intensifying that light witli the halo of martyrdom. 
Half a million of brave men, and the head man of the 
nation, crown the offering we have already paid to the 
demon of slavery and false conservatism, in Church 
and State, not yet fully cast out ! 

As we, my friends, in sympathy gather around the 
lifeless corpse of our beloved President, let us try to 
patiently look at his life, weigh his character and offi- 
cial acts, and see what Avas the " gift of God " in this 
man to us, and what is the nation's loss. 

1. We are not to be curious about all the little inci- • 
dents of his early and unofficial life at this time. This 
is the province of history. It seems proper to say that 
he was born obscure, poor, and struggled in early life 
and early manhood for support and social recognition. 
This is said, not that this is the only country in which 
poor and obscure men can and do rise to great useful- 
ness and eminence, but because it seems a universal 
law, with very few exceptions, that the prophets, lead- 
ers, sages, heroes, martyrs, saviours of the race shall 
spring from the humble classes. The scholars, kings, 
and conservatives spring from the wealthier classes. 

All the prophets of the Hebrew nation Imt one 
sprang up from the soil of the common people. But 
one, Jeremiah alone, was of the sacerdotal race. He 
wept with his people, and perished in their captivity. 
Jesus was born of a peasant-girl and cradled in a man- 



8 THE nation's loss. 

ger. MoliainmecVs patriiiioiiy was only five camels 
and one slave, and his earl}' life was serving in a store 
at Mecca. Luther ^vas the son of a poor miner of 
Mansfeld, and in his poverty sang for his bread from 
door to door ! Calvin's Mher ^vas neither rich nor 
learned, but an obscure man in Picardy. Wesley was 
the son of an English clergyman having only the 
living at E2)\vorth. 

It is no rare or exceptional thing that providential 
great men should arise from humble conditi(ms. "God 
hath chosen the weak thinijs of this Avorld to confound 
the mighty, .... and things that are not, to bring to 
naught things that are." If any extraordinary mission 
of a beneficent character has been given of God to 
Abraham Lincoln, for the deliverance of this nation 
from the demon that has scourged it, and torn it, and 
driven it into the fury and flame of ci\ il Mar, then the 
early poverty, struggle, embarrassment, obscurity of 
th(^ great leadei" whom the nation mourns to-day, are 
all in keeping willi the line ol' di'seent from a\ hich 
like-minded men usually spi'iug. 

Abi-aham Lincoln was born in llaidin County, Ken- 
tucks , h'ebruar\ 1"J, bSO'.). lie early renioxcd to San- 
L^amoii Count \, Illinois. In ls,".()-;;i, as lie was altain- 
iuLi' liis majol•il^•, the whole region was covered l)reast- 
hi'jli with a snow-sloiin ; wiiitei- wheal jteii>hed, i-attle 
and liois's died, the sett lers' nu'agi'c stock of ]iro\i- 



THE nation's loss. 9 

sions ran out. " For tliree months," the old , settlers 
said, "not a warm sun shone upon the surface of the 
snow." Communication from house to house by teams 
was cut off. Many wealthy settlers came near starv- 
ing ; poorer ones actually did starve. Supplies were 
sent from house to house, and exchanges made by 
brave and stout young men on foot, able to l^ear the 
perils of the snow. In these labors of simple human- 
ity, that prove the really true and great-hearted man 
young Lincoln was active. The good Samaritan, that 
helps his fellow-man in trouble, is the all of practical 
Christianity. " This is more than all burnt-oiferings 
and sacrifices." " This do, and thou shalt live." 

In 1836-7, Mr. Lincoln was elected a member of the 
Illinois Legislature. The State was radically pro-slave- 
ry, and in both branches of the General Assembly res- 
olutions of a strong pro-slavery character having been 
passed, you will find a protest against them on the 
journals of the House, dated March 3, 1837 : 

" The undersigned hereby protest agamst the passage of the 

same. They believe that the^ institution of slavery is founded 

on both injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation of 

abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils. 

(Signed) " Dax. STON:i, 

" A. Lincoln", 

" Representatives from the County of Sangamon." 

Here gleam the moral courage and the 2:)olitical 



10 THE NATIONS LOSS. 

prudence wliicli both together illustrated Mr. Lincoln's 
life. To say the slave-trade is piracy cost Garrison his 
liberty and a fine of fifty dollars in Baltimore, in 1832. 
To discuss slavery in Boston, in 1830, cost him a mob. 
To call slavery a sin and a crime in 183G, in Utica, 
cost Gerrit Smith and hundreds a violent mob, Avhich 
followed them thirty miles, to Peterboro, hooting, and 
yelling, and throwing missiles and odorous eggs along 
the way. To arraign slavery in 184G-7, during the 
Mexican War, cost moTjs in Central Xew-York. To 
arraign slavery and AVebster's and Fillmore's Fugitive 
Slave Law in 1850-1, cost mobs in New- York, Boston, 
Philadelphia, and in every considerable town in the 
land. To declare war against slavery, after sla\ery 
has declared Avar against the life of the nation, has 
cost riots, bloodshed, and armed resistance to the 
draft. To stand by the Government during these four 
years of bloody agony, and sweat, and almost death, 
has cost menace^ and misrepresentation, and moh vio- 
lence in this town. Then think c)f Dan. Stone and \. 
Lincoln, in benighted Illinois, in 1830-7, twcnty-niiic 
years ago, putting on the journals of the Ilnusc tlicir 
public protest: " AVe believe tliat the institution of 
slavery is founded on botli injustice and bad policy." 
Courage like tliat is the stull' out of wliieli (iod makes 
Presidents for revolutionaiy times. 

\n iStO-T, Mr. 1/uieoln was a nienilxr of tlie Tliir- 



THE nation's loss. 11 

tietli Congress. This was, perliaps, the ablest and 
stormiest Congress that ever assembled in our conn- 
try. Debates ran high, between Whigs and Democrats 
on Tariifs, River and Harbor Improvements, the Rights 
of Petition, the Abolition of Slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and that great piece of national wickedness, 
the Mexican War. ]Mr. Lincoln's first vote was in 
favor of the Harbor and River Improvement Bill. 
The vote was given in favor of these resolutions : 

'■'• Resolved, That if, in the judgment of Congress, it be neces- 
sary to improve the navigation of a river, to expedite and render 
secure the movements of our army, and save from dehiy and loss 
our arms and munitions of war, Congress has the power to im- 
prove such river, 

'■'"Resolved, That if it be necessary to the preservation of the 
lives of our seamen, rej^airs, safety, or maintenance of our ves- 
sels of war, to improve a harbor or inlet, either on our Atlantic 
or Lake coast, Congi-ess has the power to make such improve- 
ment." 

These resolutions, the very essence of wise states- 
manship, were laid upon the table, Mr. Lincoln voting 
for th.em. 

The next day Mr. Giddings presented a memoiial 
from certain persons in the District of Columbia, ask- 
ing Congress to repeal all laws upholding the slave, 
trade in the District. Mr. Giddings moved to refer 
the memorial to the Judiciary Committee, with instruc- 



12 THE nation's loss. 

tlons to inquire into the constitutionality of all laws 
by ^\l]icli slaves are held as property in the District of 
Columbia. ]\Ir. Lincoln voted for the I'esolution. 

The Mexican "Waii, 

Mr, Lincoln was opposed to the IMexican "War from 
principle — opposed to the declaration of war against 
Mexico by the President of the L^nited States, and on 
December 22, 1847, he introduced an elaborate j^et 
concise j)reamble and set of resolutions of inquir}', crit- 
icising the Messages of President Polk, and throwing 
the responsibility for the first aggressions upon the 
administration, for sending a hostile force across the 
boundary-line in opposition to the advice of General 
Taylor, "who said to the President: "That, in his opin 
ion, no such movement was necessary to the defense 
or protection of Texas." The ^viir was a Democratic 
war; but, nevertheless, after the President had com- 
menced the war, a Whig House of Representatives, by 
a vote of 102 to 14, voted sixteen million dollars for 
sui)i)lies, Mv. Lincoln voting for the l»ill. 

When the war w as over, and new teiritory ^\■a^• ac- 
(juii'cd IVom >Ab'.\ico for intK'iiiuityj Mv. Lincoln \()ted, 
with Clay, Corwiii, W'cltstcr, and the gical liglits of 
tlic WlTiL!' Jiaih', («> shut slaxci'v from ;ill I lie new (cr- 
riloiics. So, in Augnst, 1S47, when tlie Kill cinu' u]> 
lop (lie (»rgani/,:i(ion of the 'I'enitoiy of Ovojon^ a nio- 



THE nation's loss. 13 

tion was made to stiike out that part of the bill which 
extended the Jeffersonian proviso, known as the ordi- 
nance of lYST, over Oregon Territory. That ordinance 
excluded slavery from all the then North- Western Ter- 
ritories. Mr. Lincoln voted, with one hundred and 
thirteen other members, to I'etain the ordinance. 

The Gott Kesolution. 

On the 21st of December, 1848, Mr. Gott offered in 
the House the following resolution : 

" Whereas, The traffic now prosecuted in this metroj)olis of 
the Republic, in human beings as chattels, is contrary to natural 
justice and the fundamental principles of our political system, 
and is notoriously a reproach to our country throughout Christ- 
endom, and a serious hindrance to the progress of republican 
liberty among the nations of the eartli ; therefore, 

'■^ Mesolvecl, That the Committee for the District of Columbia 
be instructed to report a bill, as soon as practicable, prohibiting 
the slave-trade in said District." 

Here Mr. Lincoln's policy ruled him for once — not 
the hitherto uniform principle of his life. He forsook 
his party — forsook men like Ashmun, Bingham, Dick- 
inson, Giddings, Greeley, Hale, and voted with the op- 
position — with such men as Botts, Crozier of Tennes- 
see, Pendleton, Stephens, and Toomljs. He voted 
against the abolition of the slave-trade in the capital 
where he was assassinated. Aaron and Moses, that 



14 THE nation's loss. 

Lad led the cliilclren of- Israel for years in the wilder- 
ness and tlirou2;li tlieir various vicissitudes, both died 
on the borders of the promised land — one on Mount 
Hor, the other on Mount Nebo. Keither were allowed 
to enter it for one sin against God. But the peo- 
ple went forward under new leaders and possessed it. 
I am not superstitious — not given to believe in special 
pro\ddences, only as all providences are special. But 
certainly I l^elieve this great j^eople are going for^vard 
to i^ossess a free land, and certainly we know that he 
who has visibly led us thus far leads us no more. 
The ways of God are past finding out. 

The bill passed the House by a vote of OS to 88, 
Mr. Lincoln having no part nor lot in voting to free 
the capital of the nation from the sin and crime of the 
slave-trade. Said the National lira : 

" ]\rt'ii will Avoiulcr, twoiity-tive years lienco, liow ciglily-ciglit 
iiu'ii, in an Anuiican Congress, could .'<tanil ujt before God and 
virtually vote lor the continuance of the tradi- in human heings 
in the cai>ital ul" the loreniost lu'puhlic in the AVorld." 

It is l(.'ss tlian twenty ycai-s siiu'c lliis vote was 
ifivcii, and lo I a\ hat hath God wroiiLrlit ! 

On tlic Mill .biiiiiniy, 1n4'.», tlie (iott resolution 
acrainst tin- >la\ c-trath' in the District of Goluiiil>ia was 
airaiii Ix'Tnic the House, a iimtidii t<» rccniividci- liaNiiiir 
been prcvioii>ly «'iit( rtaiind. .Mr. Liiieohi now, l»y tlie 



THE nation's loss. 15 

courtesy of liis colleague, Mr. Went worth, who had 
the floor, oifered a substitute for the Gott resolution. 
It provided : 

" 1. That no person not then in the District of Columbia, nor 
owned there, nor hereafter born there, should be held in slavery 
there. 

" 2. That no person so held, or owned, or born a slave in the 
District, shall be held as a slave out of the District ; save that 
officers of the United States Government there, on government 
duties, might bring their servants as slaves with them, and re- 
turn without impairing their rights. 

" 3. That all children born of slave mothers, within said Dis- 
trict, on or after January 1, 1850, shall be free, and shall be rea- 
sonably supported and educated by their respective owners until 
they arrive at — age, when they shall be entirely free. 

" 4. That all persons then held as slaves in the District of Co- 
lumbia shall so remain at the will of their owners, provided said 
owners do not elect to sell said persons, for their full value, to 
the United States. The President, Secretary of State, and Sec- 
retary of the Treasury Avere made a board for determining such 
value. 

" 5. The municipal authorities in Washington and Georgetown 
were required to arrest and deliver up all fugitive slaves escap- 
ing into the District. 

" 6. This act was to take effect only on condition that it was 
approved by a majority of the electors of the District." 

You will see that policy predominates over princi- 
ple in this bill — that expediency is put before right. 
It is not a bill at all, in any of the ordinary features 



16 THE nation's loss. 

of legislation. It is simply an eiiaLling act for tlie 
electors of the District of ColumLia, to enal)le tliem, 
if they 6-0 voted^ to sell out, for the full value, their 
slaves to the Government of the United States. So 
late as 1858, in his great debate with Mr. Douglas, 
which placed Mr. Lincoln in the veiy front rank as a 
leader, a ready debater, a statesman, and a patriot, he 
frankly put himself on record before the ^vorld as " not 
pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and not in favor of the unconditional re])eal 
of the Fugitive Slave Law." I have been patient and 
particular on this ])oint for two reasons; first, it i.s 
fitting that the truth should be spoken; second, this 
bondage of Mr. Lincoln to ^\hat he honestly deemed 
constitutional oldigations, an ill (lisanii his enemies 
when they charge him with abolitionism, and also serve 
as a landmark from -w liieli we may trace the growth 
of liis convictions and cliaraeter. No man but the 
■\va\'eriiig man, the unstable man, the insincei'c man, is 
ever injured by the comparison of his j»i'(seiit wilh his 
past life. T]i(\u'(><»tl mau gro^\■s ; tlie Itad man staiuls 
still, or, alleiiiptiiig to, " like a ei'ab goes backw ai'd." 
Tlie true man sees the new light, and sees oM things 
in llie new rdaticiis wliich new light always discovers, 
'^riie false man, " ha\ in^- eves, sees not ; ha\ ing eai's, 
hears not."' siin])ly because lie has cho-eii not to see and 
In-ai- ! Tliiswa^ the sin of the .b-ws — not that they 



THE nation's loss. 17 

did not see Christ hefore lie came, but they would not 
see him after he came. The very works which he 
wrought they charged to Beelzebub, the prince of 
devils. This is the sin of the South, and of the mis- 
guided opponents of the Government all over the South 
and North at this hour. And for this sin alone the 
whole land is blasted with war and shrouded with 



mourning ! 



Public Lands. 

Before leaving Congress, Mr. Lincoln put himself on 
record in favor of the Homestead Bill. He voted for 
Mr. McClellan's Land Bill, crude as it was, because, 
he said, he was willing to give the pul)lic lands to the 
people rather than to speculators. Li Congress he 
was true, as lie believed then, to his anti-slaveiy prin- 
ciples, always voting against the extension of slavery 
in the Territories, standing with such statesmen as 
Webster and Clay. On the Mexican war he acted 
with the Whig party, refusing^ to justify the war itself, 
but voting supplies for it that the war debt might be 
liquidated. He steadily and earnestly opposed the 
annexation of Texas, and labored with all his j^owers 
in behalf of the " Wilmot Proviso." 

Ten years in so-called juivate life. Li the National 
Convention of 1848, Mr. Lincoln was a member, and 
advocated the nomination of General Zachary Taylor, 



18 THE nation's loss. 

and sustnined the nomination l)y an active canvass in 
Illinois and Indiana. He sought no rewards from the 
Government for his Labors, bnt settled down to the 
hard work of his profession of hxw from 1840 to 1854, 
losing his interest in jjolitics, when the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, and the Kansas and Nebraska 
vilLiinies brought him before the jDublic, and roused 
all the slundjering energies of his great nature. Cir- 
cumstan(;es don't make men. God makes them ; 1 >ut 
circumstances discover them. Georoe Washino-ton 
woukl have been Geori^-e Washington had there been 
no American Revolution. He would have been known, 
however, only as a practical surveyor, a large and 
thrifty farmer, a good neighbor, a true husband and 
friend. All his qualities of command, of patience, of 
hope, of patriotism, that have nuuk' him, like William 
of Orange, his great prototype, " the father of his 
country," were Tn-ought out in the furnace oi' the 
American lievolutioii. Wlicn there is need of great 
men they ai'e sure to be ])ro(hu-('cl. Tlic jiolltical con. 
vulsions of l.S.j()-r)4 made Abraham Lln<'o]n ^\ iddy 
known a^ cinphadcally one of the very ablf'^t (h'baters 
in the land; and opened up (lie ^\ ay i'or his llr^t ucnu- 
natlon for tlie l're->ideiic\- in ls<iii. Those wlio in ISdO 
asketl Ihe <|Ues|ion, " W'lio is Al)rahani kineohi C mere- 
ly jii'oelaiined llieii' iuutuanee ot" ir/id/ /it icas. His 
historian says: 



THE nation's loss. 19 

" Fully three fourths of the ability and the unwearying labor 
which resulted in the redemption of Illinois, and the election of 
Lyman Trumbull to the Senate of the United States should be 
awarded to Abraham Lincoln. He confronted Mr. Douglas at 
every point throughout that greatest State of the West — con- 
founded his soj^histries, answered his arguments, imj^aled his 
shabby theory of squatter sovei'cignty ! A revolution swej)t the 
State. Mr. Lincoln pressed the slavery issue ujjon the people 
of Central and Southern Illinois — largely made up of emigrants 
from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North-Carolina — with 
all the powers of his great mind. He carried every thing be- 
fore him. For the first time, Illinois had a Republican Legisla- 
ture. The election came on, and Mr. Lincoln, after uniting all 
the strength of his party on repeated ballots for the high honor 
of United States Senator, went to his own friends and desired 
them to drop his name, and unite on Judge Trumbull, He thus 
secured by an act of generous self-sacrifice a triumph for the 
cause of right, and an advocate on the floor of the Senate not 
inferior in zeal for the principles of republicanism to any mem- 
ber of that body." 

Mr. Lincoln was offered tlie nomination for Gover- 
nor by til e anti-Nebraska party in 1854; but lie de- 
clined in favor of Mr. Bissell. 

In 1858 came the greatest senatorial contest ever 
waged on tliis continent, between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
Douglas. Mr. Lincoln again put forth great exertions 
and great talents as a debater, and won in the popular 
election, while Mr. Dousjlas secured the leo^islative tri- 
umph. He impaled Mr. Douglas on his own double 



20 THE NATION'S LOSS. 

doctrine of the Dred Scott decision and popular sov 
ereignty. Mr. Lincoln's friends told him at Freeport : 

" That if Mr, Douglas Avas cornered on the Dred Scott de- 
cision, lie would throw the decision overboard and take \ip pop- 
ular sovereignty, and that, they said, would make him Senator. 
' That may be,' said Mr. Lincoln, and his large gray eye twinkled ; 
'but if he takes that shoot, he never can be President.'" 

The great progress of Mr. Lincoln's mind (^n the 
question of human rights is distinctly traced in this 
senatorial contest. No man ever had a more Avily or 
more unscrupulous adversary than was Senator Doug- 
las. Mr. Douglas, of course, sought to arouse ])opidar 
prejudice against Mr. Lincoln Ly charges of negro 
equality, rung \vith such persistent misrepresentation 
by smaller men all over tlie land. ^Mr. Lincoln's reply 
^vas : 

"I hold that the negro is as much entitled to all the rights 
enumerated in tlie Declaration of Independence — 'theriglitto 
lil'e, liltcrty, and the pursuit of ha}ipiness' — as the white man. 1 
agree witli .ludge Douglas; he is not luy e<iual in many respects; 
certainly not in color ; perhaps not in moral or intellectual en- 
dowment, lint in the riglit to eat the bread, without the leave 
of any one else, which his own hand earns, /ic is mj i^nal, and 
the Cijinil (;/■ Judije JJoinjlas, and the equal of even/ liclnr/ man.'''' 

WvYv .Ml". Liiic( .Ill's cMily training is overfoiiic. TTcic 
tilt' priiici|)lc (if clialtcllKMid, si» j);iiiifiill\' iiianil'cst in 
his own liill lor ilic rctjululion of dlavtrij in tlie 



THE nation's loss. 21 

District of Columbia, six years before — 1848 — is man- 
fully pushed away. Here tlie simj^le manhood of the 
negro slave, however weak or despised that manhood 
may be, is recognized, and the duty of Government 
maintained to protect it, with all its essential rights, 
as quick as it would protect Judge Douglas, Mr. Lin- 
coln himself, or any other living man. Here expe- 
diency and policy, the bane of politics, are brushed 
away, and solid 23rinci23le put in their stead. Here the 
corner-stone is laid for that unyielding character which 
made him the leader of a great peoj^le through the 
Red Sea of their distresses to the borders of the prom- 
ised land ! 

In Mr. Lincoln's sj)eech to the convention which 
nominated him for the Senate, were these words of 
truth and prophecy so often used, both by his enemies 
and friends : 

" A house divided against itself can not stand. I believe this 
Government can not endure permanently half slave and half 
free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do not ex- 
pect the house to fall ; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. 
It will become all the one thing, or all the other." 

President or the United States. 

In the Republican Convention which met at Chicago, 
May, 1860, there were present four hundred and sixty- 
five deleo^ates. On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln re- 



22 THE nation's loss. 

ceived three liunclred and fifty-four votes, aud then, on 
motion of Mr. Evarts, of New- York, the nomination 
for the high office of President of tlie United States 
was made unanimous. 

'His election was secui'ed throuo-h a vis^orous and ex- 
citing campaign. It was tlie moral uprising of a great 
people rebuking slavery propagandism, the Lecompton 
swindle, the Dred Scott infamy, the Kansas tyrannies 
and cheats, the sugar-coated name of Democracy. Not 
a man in the nation had done more to secure the tri- 
umph than Mr. Lincoln himself, working ^vith might 
and main in the West years before he was thought of 
as standard-bearer ; and even Avhen he had no chance 
of election as Governor of Illinois, because his politi- 
cal principles would not yield to the prejudices of liis 
peo})le. Mr. Douglas ^delded and failed. ]Mr, Lincoln 
had faith in God, faith in man, faith in the future, and 
triumphed. No man in the nation was more worthy 
of the honors of victory! No man in the nation 
coidd have so safely carri('(l us over the tirst aic-li ol" 
the bridge from the old civilization to the new I 

Tlis route to the c.-ijutal was an (tNatiou. He was 
needed there AVeakiiess, iiicapaeit}-, treason, disinte- 
gration, were \ i>il>le in ever\' |>;u't oi" tlie (i<t\ eminent 
\\\\v\\ Mr. I>ineoIii (ook llie iiins. Secession Avas 
ali-ead\- aeeoni|)lisli<Ml. 'I'lie ichcl govennneni was in- 
auLinrated .-it Montgomery, l'\-I)ruary eighteenlli, ImU, 



THE nation's loss. 23 

by the election of Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. 
Stephens. Davis issued a flaunting address, in which 
he declared the day of compromise past. (He spoke 
the truth for once — it is past.^ 

"The South," he said, " will maintain her position, and make 
all who oppose her smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel, 
if coercion is persisted in. He felt sure of the result. It might 
be they iDould have to encounter inconveniences at the beginning ; 
but he had no doubts of the final issue," 

We still think he spoke the truth. Tliey have en- 
coiintered inconveniences ; and we think Mr. Davis, a 
fleeing vagabond from his own capital, with cause and 
army and country lost, " has no doubt of the final 
issue." 

Twelve days before Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated in 
Washington, having escaped assassination in Balti- 
more, treason was inaugurated in Montgomery. Forty 
days after he had taken the oath to preserve, j^rotect, 
and defend the Constitution of the United States, Fort 
Sumter was bombarded by order of the rebel conspir- 
acy. Civil war was begun by the South, President 
Lincoln patiently but firmly acting on the defensive. 
His inaugural address was a marvel of magnanimity, 
containing not one word of reproach to the South — 
not one menace ; not one threat. On the other hand, 
it leaned toward them ; it took them by the hand ; it 



24 THE nation's loss. 

assured them of certain protection of all tlieir old 
rights under the Constitution. It closed with these 
words of warning and entreaty, without a parallel in 
any state j^aper in the history of the world : 

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not 
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government 
Avill not assail you. You can have no conflict without being 
yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in 
heaven to destroy the Government, while I have the most solemn 
one ' to preserve, protect, and defend it.' 

" I am loth to close. "VYc are not enemies, but friends. We 
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it 
must not break our bonds of affection, 

" The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle- 
field and i)atriot-gravc to every living heart and hearth-stone all 
over this broad Lmd, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, 
when again touched, as surely they Avill be, by the better angels 
of our nature." 

This is a faithful father iiii])loring his Avillfiil cliiUl- 
reu. A great, tender, human heart, yearning over the 
dangers that threaten his couiiliy. C'lirist \vej)t i)\vv 
Jerusalriii, .-iikI they I'cpaid liis syiii]»atliy with cruci- 
lixioii. Pic<i(l<'nt Lincoln yearned over tlie South, and 
the Si»iith I'cpaiil his sympatliy with cixil war, liiiiig 
Uj)(»u his coiiiitrN 's W-A'j:, slicddiiig iiiiiocciit Mood in ilie 
streets of l>altiinoi'c, inciiaciiig I lie xciy capital, and 
threaten in-'- to oveirun and eniiiill" the wlitde hind ! 



THE nation's loss. 25 

The Issue Accepted. 

On tlie fifteenth of April, 1861, proclamation and 
call for seventy-five tlioiisand men was made, " to sup- 
press treasonable comljinations, and cause the laws to 
be duly executed." Tliis proclamation, and the immi- 
nent danger of the Government, united the North. 
The very first day after the call, Massachusetts had her 
Sixth regiment completely equipped, on the road to 
the national capital. Those troops were fired npon by 
a mob in Baltimore. Governor Hicks, of Maryland, 
and Mayor Brown, of Baltimore, asked that no more 
troops be sent through Baltimore. President Lincoln 
yielded, and sent them by way of Annapolis. 

On the nineteenth of April, a temperate proclama- 
tion of blockade was made, and the nation stood 
calmly on the defensive, while the South was making 
the most vigorous preparations for war. 

Seeino" this, President Lincoln convened Cono-ress on 
the fourth of July, 1861, and asked for four hundred 
thousand men and four hundred million dollars. Con- 
gress acted with the utmost promptness and liberality. 
They passed acts approving and legalizing all that 
President Lincoln had done on his own responsibility 
to save the Government. They passed the Confisca- 
tion Act by a vote of ninety-three to fifty-five, although 
John C. Breckinridge, and such men, since open trai- 



26 THE nation's loss. 

tors, were in their seats. They passed a resolution de- 
claring it to be " no part of tlie duty of the soldiers of 
the United States to capture and return fugitive 
slaves." They voted five hundred thousand men and 
five hundred million dollars for the war for the 
Union. Thus was President Lincoln not only indorsed 
L}' tlie people, hut commended, justified, and more 
than sustained. One hundred thousand more men 
and one hundred million dollars more money than 
he called for were promptly given him by tlie people. 
On the sixth of March, 18G2, President Lincoln 
sent a special message to Congress recommending a 
joint i*esolution to compensate all States for their abo- 
lition of slavery, as a war measure and a measure of 
public safety. The resolution to compensate was 
passed in both houses and signed by the President ; 
and in President Lincoln's correspondence Avith both 
Generals Hunter and Fremont, who had both declared 
martial-law and the abolition of slavciy, he gives as 
the reason for the revocation of the cinancijtatitMi jnirt 
of their military proclamations tlie f;u't thnt tlu y had 
transcended the laws of Congress, a\ hlcli lie, as l-^xecu- 
tive, was t(^ execute and not to obstruct. lie iiad not 
yet madi; up his uiiiid as to his j)(»\\cr, un(h-r the Con- 
stitution, to free tin- slaves, and he lluretore revolted 
the jii'oeh-unations df ( Jciierals iiuiitrr and Fremont, 
and hild out the oli\c lnaneli of coinj>m ■sated cnuincl- 



THE nation's loss. 27 

pation. Next to the fatal mistake of commencing war 
at all, the refusal of the slave States to accept of this 
proposition was their awful blunder. 

In August twenty-second, 1862, President Lincoln 
wrote his brief and pertinent letter to Horace Greeley, 
defining his policy, of which Mr. Greeley and many 
others were hitherto uncertain. In that letter he said : 

" My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either 
to save or destroy slavery. If I coiihl save the Union without 
freeing any slave, I vrould do it. If I could do it by freeing all 
the slaves, I would do it. And if I could do it by freeing some 

and leaving others alone, I would do that I shall 

try to correct errors when shown to be errors ; and I shall adopt 
new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views. 

" I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish, 
that all men, everywhere, could be free." 

On the twenty-second September, 1862, one month 
from the date of his letter to Mr. Greeley, the Presi- 
dent issued the conditional " Proclamation of Emanci- 
pation," which, by being rejected by the rebels, sealed 
the fate of human slavery on this continent, and ren- 
ders its speedy extinction by the war power of the 
Government certain. On the first day of January, 
1863, the supplemental ^proclamation came, naming all 
those States and parts of States in rebellion where 
the emancipation proclamation should take effect. It 
pledged the executive, military, and naval power of 



28 THE XATIOX'S LOSS. 

the Government to maintain tlieir freedom. It en- 
joined the freedmen to abstain from all violence, un- 
less in necessary self defense. It recommended them 
to labor for wages wherever allowed. It informed 
them that they would be received into the armed 
service of the United States, and closed Avith this 
solemn appeal : 

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice 
warranted by the Constitution, ui)on military necessity, I in- 
voke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious 
favor of Almighty God," 

My friends, it is no })art of my intention, or of the 
duty of this hour, to enter into a minute or critical 
histor}^ of President Lincoln's conduct of the Avar. 
Your judgments are as well informed as mine on this 
su])ject. His re-nomination and reelection by one of 
the largest joopular majorities ever given a candidate 
in this country, sweeping every thing, from Maine to 
California, excej^t three States, is proof that the great 
body of the American people a])])ro\e of his conduct 
of the M'ai- ; and the deliberate, impartial judgment of 
liistory will he, that the nation has suH'ered more from 
his clemency than his severit\' ; more tVom his good- 
ness of heart, and sinijile lailli in lii^ kind, than tVom 
any fancied strain of powci'; more fi'oin the al>sence 
of niai'tial law than from its almiidaiit pi'csence; more 



THE nation's loss. 29 

from the lack of arbitrary arrests, than from tlie multi- 
plication of them ; more from traitors all over the 
North, and all along the war-path to the South, who 
have been unmolested, than from the denial of the 
great writ of habeas cor])\is to the few who have been 
imprisoned. 

" In war, laws are silent," is a proverb of Roman 
history. The safety of the Republic is the supreme 
law. The Constitution itself provides for all the ex- 
traordinary measures which President Lincoln saw 
needful for the public welfare ; and history will mar- 
vel that in a civil war which marshaled two millions 
of men in the field — which lasted four years, at least — 
which overran more territory than half of all Europe^ 
so little excess was committed, and so little severity 
was dealt out. 

President Lincoln took up into his long arms — his 
capacious mind — his great heart, all the jarring ele- 
ments of factions, all the differences of his friends, all 
the necessities of his enemies. He was patient with 
all congressional differences, silent under all attacks, 
forgiving to a fault as a child. He was approachable 
by the humblest citizen in the Republic. You not 
only approached his bodily frame, he allowed you to 
approach his interior personality. You could not fail 
to believe in his sympathy for all that is just, and 
good and true. He, more than any other man we have 



30 THE KATIOX'S LOSS. 

ever raised, Avas the Cliief Magistrate of tlie people, 
and not of a _pavty. He found time to receive and 
listen to all sorts of delegations, from all sorts of 
people and societies — ministers, laymen, Quakers, col- 
ored people — all were taken into liis kindly considera- 
tion. Like William of Orange, " lie bore the sorrows 
of Lis peo])l(^ witli a smiling face." He Lad not only 
time to visit tLe poor, sick soldiers in tlie camps and 
hospitals around AYasLington, but lie Lad time to 
write hopeful and thankful letters to the Avorkingmen 
of Lancashire and London, thanking them for their 
genuine sympathy in our cause, and returning tlie 
sym2:)athy of a great human heart for tlieir distresses, 
occasioned by our strict blockade and the stoj^page of 
tlieir cotton-mills. He was a laboriuo- man. He had 
no patrimony but lionesty, industry, frugality. When 
a l)oy only eight years of age, he helped to cut the 
road for the ox-team that was transporting his father's 
earthly all into the Avilds of Indiana. From the lowest 
social (■(•lulitioii to the hiirhest social condition of the 
world he arose, by the jmrity of his jmrposc, the dis- 
cildiiu' of his mind, and the majesty of his \\ill. Ele- 
vation (o jiowiT had no intoxication foi' Liiii. lie Avas 
no i»ait\' man. lb' ncillicr ]>unish('d his jtoliiii-al ene- 
mies, noi- I'cwarilcd Lis jiolitical friends, as siieli. He 
sought Ibi- tlie ri-lit man in the ri-lit place, Witli all 
tlie lioiTois of WAV ai'onml liini, lie ne\cr l>ecanie intol- 



THE nation's loss, 31 

erant, revengeful, or bloodthirsty. He drove through 
the pickets of the army of the Potomac to pardon a 
boy condemned to death for sleeping on his post. 
"With the smoke of battle around him, and the roar of 
hostile cannon in his ear, he all the time kept an open 
ear for peace. He went to meet the enemy, and tell 
him peace, by cessation of' hostilities on the part of 
the rebellion, would be followed by a liberal construc- 
tion of the pardoning power. After victory brought 
thousands of his proud enemies at his feet he exulted 
in no hope of personal revenge, but exulted in the 
hope of a near peace for his distracted country. He 
died with forgiveness on his tongue, and forgiveness in 
his heart. He was simple as a child in his habits, 
temperate, chaste, devout, religious. Though no sec- 
tarian, he was a firm believer in God, and a great be- 
liever in man. He died a martyr to his country, and 
a martyr to his faith in human kind. He did not 
believe that even slavery could educate a man up to 
the depravity of killing him. 

Such my friends, very imperfectly and hastily told, 
is the man this nation mourns to-day as it never 
mourned a loss before. Such is the friend of the high 
and the low, the rich and the poor, the white and the 
black, the learned and the ignorant, the free and the 
bond, who Avill be mourned by the struggling millions 
of Europe and the world, when they shall hear of his 



32' THE nation's loss. 

untimely death. AVlieu the despair of our grief is 
over, and the jianoply of nionrning ^vhieh hangs over 
the hmd is hiid aside, may we Letter mourn him by 
emuhxting his simjde, homely virtues and his lofty 
patriotism ! May God bless the memory of Abkaiiam 
Lincoln, and grant that his blood, shed by imnatural 
and wicked hands, may cement the union of these 
States, founded upon equal libei-ty for all men, and 
may that union and his memory live togetlier long as 
the stars shall endure ! 



